Is Violent Death Painful?

Waikato Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1740, 15 April 1916, Page 5

Is Violent Death Painful?

COMFORTABLE SENSATION TO BE

DROWNED,

It is at least some consolation to a man that if he is to die a violent death, he will cither feel nothing, or his sensations will be not only free from pain, but probably pleasant. The soldier who is instantaneously killed by a bullet feels does not even hear the report of the rifle that kills lung All he knows, if he knows anything at all, is that he is no lunger among the living. Men who have struggled buck to life after a hairbreath escape from drowning, declare that after the first moments, their sensations were pleasant—a painless, happy floating through sweet sounds and beautiful visions.

And death conies in less pleasant guise to the man who falls from a great height. When Professor Heim, a mountaineer, fell down a precipice in the Alps, he described his feelings thus: <T At first I seemed to be flying through the air. At intenals I heard, but did not feel, the impact of head ami body against rocky prominences.

“But through my long, swift descent to what seemed Curtain death, I felt no pain or terror. I was floating in a heaven of glorious blue, flecked with clouds of crimson. I was wafted to and fro, borne up painlessly and pleasantly, while a vast and moving snowfitdd seemed to accompany me. Then came a dull thud, which I heard, but did not feel , and my fall was ended. At that instant a dark veil passed before me, and as far as all sensation went life was over.”

It was when he recovered conscious nesy that he felt nain.